Users who create additional profiles will not be required to use their real identity for their display name, according to Lam, as long as the stand-in does not violate the platform’s policies and does not include numbers or special characters. For years, Facebook’s rule requiring account holders to use the name they use in real life has been a source of contention, even prompting legal action in Germany.
Facebook’s move away from a single profile comes as the platform battles to retain users, particularly young people, as existential threats such as TikTok grow. In the fourth quarter of 2021, the company lost daily users for the first time in its history.
